Free forum in Montclair to discuss alternatives to standarized testing

Montclair Cares About Schools (MCAS), the Montclair Education Association, Save Our Schools NJ and the Bloomfield Board of Education will cosponsor a free forum on Sunday, Jan. 12, from 1 to 3 p.m. to discuss alternatives to standardized testing. The meeting will be held at Montclair Fire Headquarters, 1 Pine St.

The groups will welcome members of the New York Performance Standards Consortium to share their experiences, according to a release. The consortium, a collection of 28 New York schools, has for 20 years gauged student mastery of material on papers and projects rather than testing.

"We think that there is a lot of growing concerns about high-stakes standardized testing around the country, including Montclair," Maia Davis of MCAS told The Times.

Davis said that whether or not Montclair would be interested in adopting the consortium practice, she and the event's cosponsors were interested in presenting alternatives to testing.

Davis opined that the consortium has proven that it is possible to deemphasize testing and still maintain high standards of learning. By not "teaching to the test," she asserted, schools within the consortium have been able to tinker their curriculum to gain deeper understandings of subjects rather than covering simply what students will be tested on.

The forum came together, Davis said, in part because the Bloomfield Board of Education sought to put together a similar program and representatives from the neighboring towns chose to collaborate.

Despite efforts made by the Montclair School District to alleviate worries regarding the Common Core testing through workshops, concerns remain, according to Davis.